A man who has already been detained by immigration officials for seven years will remain in jail until his real identity and nationality can be confirmed.

At a monthly detention review Thursday, adjudicator Andrew Laut described Michael Mvogo’s circumstances as “extraordinary” but saw no other option to ensure he would not go into hiding if released.

Mvogo’s lengthy detention is his own making, Laut concluded, because he has been deceitful about his identity even before he arrived in Canada in 2005 with a fraudulent American passport.

For four years, from his arrest in 2006 at a Toronto homeless shelter to 2010, Mvogo claimed to be an American citizen by the name of Andrea Jerome Walker.

He then said he came from Haiti before an Interpol search in 2011 matched his fingerprints to a Cameroonian man convicted of narcotics charges in Spain.

“This pattern you engaged in has been going on since 1986 (in Madrid),” Laut said. “You chose to provide false information to this board, the Canada Border Services Agencies, authorities, to people who tried to help you . . . You yourself are causing the delay.”

According to Stephanie Echlin, hearing officer for the border agency, Canadian officials have spent years trying to verify Mvogo’s identity based on the information he provided.

Despite Mvogo’s latest claim to be Cameroonian, officials have yet to locate his family and relatives, or confirm he had attended the school he said he did.

The only objective evidence that seems to lead Ottawa closer in solving Mvogo’s mystery is a recent test that shows his language pattern does reflect someone of Cameroonian French background, said Echlin.

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.